Bartimaeus

We have been in Edinburgh for nearly 3 months. The summer is starting and typically the May weather is very varied. I always look forward to the peony opening in our garden in May. This year it had only one flower.

Shane has continued to enjoy cycling and increased his mileage back up to pre-operative levels. I have enjoyed walks and finished socks and still writing poetry but eased off on the daily rate of last month.

Last weekend we hoped to catch a flotilla on the canal in Edinburgh but only just saw the end of it receding from us and couldn’t catch up, but had a nice walk along the canal, seeing ducklings, in woodland by the Water of Leith, smelling of wild garlic, and into the Redhall Walled Garden, which is a nice relaxing spot to sit down and stroll around, made up for not properly seeing the boats. 

We are expecting Shane to have follow up treatment at some time after the surgery, but have no dates yet. Shane has had a follow-up appointment from his optician appointment in March, at Opthalmology – Rather than being called a hospital, it is the Eye Pavilion. It isn’t a particularly attractive building but it is a pleasant walk across the Meadows and the treatment is excellent.

With no further fixed dates, we have seized the opportunity to head back down to reacquaint ourselves with Bartimaeus. Shane’s shoulder is feeling well enough that carrying a rucksack was no difficulty, though he removed the power tools for another trip. We have had a nice smooth journey with no delays and was very relaxing reading our books, doing a  crossword together and having lunch till we reached Crewe where we had short train change and  I began a new knitting project and Shane did a sodoku and then we were in Derby. We were welcomed back by a new character outside Derby station and passed some interesting unavailable seating honouring tradesmen with tools basing all the chairs. Some were so high we couldn’t see the tools or trades.

We had time for a coffee in the market near the bus station, before getting the bus to the marina and Bartimaeus is moored right outside it, (thanks Benny and Heather) and we glimpsed a section of Bartimaeus as we walked through the marina carpark but it is a long way round to get to the other side of the canal. We passed some familiar boats we have met before on the way. Bartimaeus was sporting some cobwebs that looked more dramatic from having caught some fluffy seeds, the plants won’t take root here. 

 Shane has been doing some tech fiddling and we should be able to move the boat tomorrow and feel well settled in. While I was cooking a man smiled and nodded and I saw he was taking a photo of the side of the boat. I don’t know if it was the name or the cobwebs and if he might be writing a blog of his own.